a wonderful winter weekend

we had a wonderful and memorable weekend! we started off going to the belhaven college singing christmas tree. as we were listening to christmas carols, it started to snow!

all bundled up
sara beth had a great time! she was so excited and talked about it all week. now, when we hear a song that we heard friday night, she reminds us!


leigh had a great time as well. however, she really enjoyed snuggling with bo bo. this is how she sat for the entire hour!
trying to catch snow

when it was over, sara beth just took off running! (this was my coat when i was her age--how great of my mom to keep it!)
saturday morning we woke up and played in the snow. this is how much snow we got!

sara beth has been talking about making snow angels since it turned cold a few weeks ago. i can't believe she got to make one--at the beginning of december!

after we got enough snow time, we headed to the madison christmas parade with honey and g.

i love these two pictures below



leigh's favorite part was the horses and sara beth loved the dancers

Thanksgiving Week

Sara Beth had a lot of fun at her Thanksgiving Feast at school. What a feast it was....check out all the cute food...

Her teacher is so fun and creative. Mrs. Nuzzo ordered this tent of of Ebay so the kids could play in it. She also put blue butcher paper on the floor and made fishing poles and fish for the kids. She told them that Indians were quiet when they fished so they wouldn't scare the fish away! I think Mrs. Nuzzo is pretty smart too!
Sara Beth tried to teach her sister how to fish.
On Saturday, Eady surprised Sara Beth with a quick visit. SB didn't know they were coming so when we walked in to Mazzios and they were there it was quite a shock!
They made some turkey cupcakes to share with everyone!
They left Monday after lunch, and we hit the family circuit! The girls had a blast eating popsicles at Honeys.

Doe and Dub took our family out to eat one night! It's always fun to get us all together!

On Thanksgiving Day, we spent a couple of hours at the farm before heading to Honeys. Dad is helping Leigh to warm her hands by the heater.
Leigh is a farm girl. She reminds me so much of myself. Loving the cows and tractors, while at the same time loving her purse and lipstick! She was so funny riding the tractors and four-wheelers. She would tighten her legs around them when it was time for her to get off and scream "NOOOOOOOOOO" at us.
Sara Beth thought the best view was from the porch. She's a great encourager and cheerleader!
But after LOTS of coaxing, I managed to get her on the four-wheeler with me and then eventually Bo Bo. We even got up to a good speed!
Then we went to the Henson's for the afternoon and evening! G was unsuccessfully trying to read a book and get a picture!
They remind me of ants! They were all over the place!
Leigh would have been content to spend the entire week holding Reed. Sweet thing, he was SOOOO patient with her!
We went on numerous walks at both houses this week. The weather was perfect all week!
The Pegg kids need to teach mine a few things about taking pictures!

doe and sara beth getting in some good reading time

happy birthday mom (11/11), dad (11/14), and zeb (11/17)--we had a fun little birthday party at our house, but we were sorry dad missed his own birthday party cause he was sick
a few weeks ago, sara beth said 14 catechism questions at one time and received this crown. she wore this crown around the clock for four straight days! we were proud- she worked very hard and really wanted to do this!
what are these you ask? chestnuts

there is a good reason that i am 29 years old and had never had a chestnut! my cooking club assignment was chestnut stuffing. i wish that i was a good writer so that you could really get the full picture of this story.

first off, it took 20 minutes at kroger for the clerks to locate the chestnuts (still in the box in the back). i get home and immediately call for back-up: Sara! we spend the next 3 hours roasting and peeling, peeling, peeling those things. (i have heard that williams sonoma has them already done in a can--i don't care how much they cost I am DONE roasting chestnuts!)
Sara smiling with a sarcastic smile on her face! In the end, the stuffing was delicious and everyone enjoyed it! Sara is doubly glad that we are done because she doesn't have to listen to me sing, "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" anymore! And--my kitchen didn't even smell good when they were done!
November 1st we went to Tupelo for the baptism of then newest Henson, Reed. We had a great, quick trip. We left at 7 am and were home by 5 pm! This picture cracks me up because Leigh was trying so hard to hold him and then stand up with him. You can tell that Reed wasn't enjoying this nearly as much as she was!
We tried to get a good picture of 5 out of the 7 grandkids--pretty good minus the shadows!
Sara Beth has also taught Leigh a couple of the catechism questions already!

We are in Oz

We had such a fun day! Zeb did his fatherly duty and carved the girls a pumpkin. He's getting pretty good at it!

You can tell by her pitiful look, that sweet Leigh was having a hard afternoon! She did enjoy watching her daddy though.

We got them dressed up to pose with their pumpkins--it was impossible to get a good picture. You can see Leigh was snuggling with her Toto which gave me the idea months ago that the girls would be Dorothy and Toto this year! (Toto is Leigh's dog that she sleeps with--she got him as a Christmas gift the year before she was born--and she's attached!)
She needed a sweet sweet Daddy-Daughter moment!
Our first trick-or-treater was a friend who was also dressed as Dorothy! This is Sara Beth and Sara Foster.
It took them a house or two to get into it, but once they did there was no stopping them! They had a lot of fun going house to house. This was our first year to do it. Last year our only stop was the Davis'.

Yesterday, Sara Beth had a big day at school. Of course, Toto jumped right in and thought she was 3.
Trinity has a cute little parade. Honey and G came to watch.
And so did Daddy!!!!!!!!!!
They were led by their fearless leader, Mother Goose (aka Mrs. Neville).
Here is Sara Beth's class.
She completely got into this.


They also got dressed up for gymnastics this week. I think it is so funny that Fico is a hotdog. Fico was one of my coaches 18 years ago!

new orleans trip

we took the girls down to new orleans for our very first family vacation. we had a great time.

leigh discovered that she really liked to pull sara beth's hair and that every time she did she got her hand spanked. it was a constant battle...finally sb just walked!

their favorite things about new orleans were...in no particular order...

1. sofa bed
2. taxi cabs
3. pigeons
if we had gone for these three things only they would have been happy, but we did a lot more...

daddy had a work dinner on thursday night at acme's. it was delicious. the girls were so good so it made it fun for all!
the next morning we went to cafe du monde...and their responses were...

we don't know where our kiddos get their taste buds--i mean, who doesn't like beignets

our next stop was the insectarium. this place was so much fun.

sara beth wasn't sure sure about touching this giant beetle...but she did.
they loved playing in the "love bug"
the butterfly room was so beautiful. if you look closely you can see several butterflies on the plants. they were flying all around the room.
after a delicious lunch at gordon biersch and a short nap, we were off to the aquarium.
they played on the slide for a long time

they both really enjoyed looking at the fish. my pictures are absolutely terrible because i couldn't get them to focus on the camera.
then we were off to an imax movie--sara beth's first movie in a theatre
saturday we went to the zoo. here sara beth is posing with the gator.
i love this picture. leigh was very enthusiastic when telling zeb and sister about the snake.
of course we rode the carousel

and finally proof that i actually went along on the trip!

6:30 this morning we here "mommy, my sunshine is on". this is what she was talking about. the best gadget in the WHOLE WIDE world! my little sunshine, sara beth, likes to wake up early--like 5:30, 5:45ish. we (i mean zeb) puts her back in bed and she has to stay until 6:15 or so--but it's very frustrating!

my sis-in-law, laura, found this awesome clock. it has a clock on the back and you can set the times. for instance, we set it so that the moon will come on at 6:30 p.m. and she knows it will soon be bedtime. then, we set the sunshine to shine at 6:30 a.m. sara beth knew she had to wait for the sun to shine for morning! she was so proud of herself! zeb and i have talked about how frustrating it might be for her because morning time has always been a guessing game--now she has something concrete to know!

we got it at www.goodnitelite.com. well worth the money!!!!!!!!!!!!

on monday, while sb was at school, mom and i took the other three to the library. here they are singing "the wheels on the bus"!
and getting in some reading time with my may
tuesday, we decided the big girls needed some time alone. mom played with leigh and bryson slept late (or normal in his case--10ish). i took the girls to the park. (the red sweatsuits were pure coincidence-but they loved it!)

don't they look big and mature in this pic
i showed them how to "train" down a slide
then we met everyone else at backyard burger and they all got some sliding time!

fall festival

we have had so much fun with zeb! his internal medicine and pediatrics boards are over! so we got to play all weekend--and it was cold!!!!!

saturday morning we went to the fall festival at the township in ridgeland. we started off with sara beth decorating a bat cookie with BLACK icing! who ever heard of such!

we quickly moved into face painting.
and horseback riding... she could have done this all day...
poor leigh was so cold, her eyes were a constant faucet
then it was jumping time...there were a bunch of big kids on the slide so i had to do it with her the first time...
but only once
until leigh wanted to go down
we didn't stay as long as we planned due to the weather-but we stopped by soulshine and got some pizza on the way home. after pizza, she got to eat the cookie she decorated with black icing!

Fun at the Fair

My parents have continued the tradition of taking their grandkids to the fair. I grew up doing this with Doe and Dub and have the best memories. They can't go anymore, but they love to hear all the details! This year Elizabeth's kids joined us. Elizabeth had a hysterectomy yesterday, so we have the sweet privilege of keeping their kids for a few weeks--which made the fair even more exciting for SB!

We started off at the petting zoo--Bo Bo had the most fun!

Although, the kiddos had a pretty good time, too!
For a while, Leigh was content hanging in the stroller. Notice I said- for a while!
Then we hit the rides...
And Leigh joined in on ride number 2 and hung with the gang the rest of the time!
Up high in the ferris wheel



And all that riding made them hungry--nothing like a free biscuit. (i do realize this pic is terrible--but i took 3 and this was the best)
After some biscuits and chicken, all were content and ready to head home.

ducks and a project

The girls love to feed ducks! We have found the perfect spot because we can stand on concrete and the "mean" ducks can't get us--so it's all fun!

And there are even a few turtles!

Sara Beth thinks there are 14 days in a week--due to a nap in the middle of each day. This has been causing a lot of problems and confusion, as you might imagine. So, a couple of weeks ago, we solved that problem! We made a calendar with her schedule. It has helped so much. I would encourage every mother to do this. It was easy to do. We divided each day into four inches and it fit perfectly on a long piece of poster board. We discussed each day and drew a pillow for a nap each day. After we marked it out in pencil, I let her color it.
It was a helpful, fun, rainy day project! The green flower is on a clothes pin and we clip it on to the day of the week! She loves it!

you just thought you woke up with bad hair...

and this was after her nap...you should see her after 12 hours of sleep!